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Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com. This summer I am joined by Keir Wilmut and Omar Soliman.
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Moe Norman, RIP.
Credit: CBC.ca
Thanks to a call from my awesome news-loving mom, who has always voluntarily and selflessly acted as a second set of eyes and ears, I learned today of the death over the weekend of Canadian golf legend Moe Norman. (I missed the news because we had no contact with civilization during the canoe trip.)
This is very sad for the Canadian golf world. Ever since I started playing golf I have been very intrigued by the enigmatic story of Moe Norman. He is probably not well-known to most readers here, but Norman is thought by some to be the greatest ball striker ever born. He did not achieve tremendous fame and success in professional golf because of his strange and often erratic personality and behaviour. (Most people think this was the result of being run over by a train when he was young; some think he was an "idiot savant" because he had an uncanny ability to recite complex mathematical equations.) Norman would often sleep in his car, had bad personal hygiene, drank Coke from dusk till dawn, repeated himself while talking, etc... He was a very quirky man indeed.
But later in life he enjoyed a sort of renaissance, when he made the cover of Golf Digest magazine, a book was written about him, and he became involved in a new wave teaching method based on his unorthodox swing, Natural Golf. He was also -- much belatedly -- inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. After struggling financially for most of his life, he was also given a $5,000/month contract from Titleist golf balls.
I was fortunate enough to see Norman in action twice: once at a junior golf tournament at Horseshoe Valley in 1997; the other at a clinic he did for the public near Peterborough a year or two later. He was already in his late 60s by then, but wow, could he still hit the ball. Dead straight every time. I remember being so excited to finally be seeing this man play in the flesh. It was one of the highlights of my junior golf career.
I was not disappointed. I recall Norman being very conversant with the crowd, talking aloud as he hit the ball. "So pure, so pure," he said, or something to that effect, after striking perfect shot after perfect shot. "Nobody can touch me, nobody can touch me." Norman was a truly fascinating character and he will be missed.
UPDATE: See Lorne Rubenstein's characteristically excellent pieces in the Globe here and here.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 5:55 PM
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